Premier League Round-Up: Brighton Beat Arsenal, City Survive an Eight-Goal Game

Brentford scored three times in the last half hour of a Friday night west London derby, and Chelsea did not score at all.

Jaidon Anthony headed the first on 61 minutes, unmarked a yard out, after Jannik Schuster had nodded a deep corner back across goal. Igor Thiago got the second on 83, putting the rebound into an empty net after Emiliano Martinez had saved from Kevin Schade. Fabio Carvalho, a substitute, finished Schade's deflected cross at the back post in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Chelsea had 59.8% of the ball and twelve corners to Brentford's four, and put two shots on target. Xabi Alonso had brought in Jordan Henderson and Valentin Barco to steady a midfield in front of a defence that has now conceded twelve league goals this season, and for an hour it worked. What it cost was the attacking verve of the opening weeks. Sam Drury's report notes that the absence of the injured Joao Pedro was felt both before and after Chelsea fell behind, and that they created nothing that counted as a clear chance until the game was gone.

Igor Thiago scored 22 league goals last season and this was his first of this one, which explains why the celebration at the Gtech was closer to relief. Schuster is 20, arrived in the summer, and spent the first half putting out fires before providing an assist at the other end. Brentford are unbeaten after five league matches. Chelsea have gone three without a win.

Tottenham Hotspur have two points from five matches. That is a worse start than any they have made to a Premier League season, including the 2008-09 campaign that had held the record.

Johan Manzambi prodded Aston Villa in front four minutes into first-half stoppage time, with Micky van de Ven off the pitch receiving treatment and a panicky attempted clearance from Andy Robertson behind it. Nicolas Jackson found the left corner from the edge of the box on 67 with Jan Paul van Hecke backing off. Emiliano Buendia curled into the same corner from further out on 79. Conor Gallagher tapped in on 86 and Van Hecke headed the second with the final touch of the match.

Spurs had 63.9% of the ball, twenty shots to fifteen and eleven corners to one. Zion Suzuki made three saves to deny Savio from close range in a first half Tottenham controlled. VAR correctly ruled out a Mohammed Kudus equaliser on the hour because Robertson had been offside by the slightest of margins in the build-up. Steve Sutcliffe's report records that Tottenham have now failed to win any of the last 48 matches in all competitions in which they conceded the opening goal.

They spent more than £300m in the summer and they were booed off. Villa arrived having lost the side that won the Europa League final and rebuilt it in one window, and three of the replacements decided the afternoon: Suzuki in goal, Manzambi behind the striker, Jackson leading the line. A fifth of Jackson's 25 goals in the English top flight have been scored against Tottenham, which is the sort of record a player does not lose easily.

Arsenal had won their previous nine Premier League matches and seven in all competitions this season. Brighton were three goals up with 33 minutes still to play.

Pascal Gross scored on 31 from the edge of the box, the shot going in off the post. Charalampos Kostoulas turned and finished from the same area on 45, seconds after Bukayo Saka had passed up Arsenal's best chance of the half following Martin Odegaard's deflected effort. Chema Andres headed the third from a Gross corner twelve minutes into the second half. Pascal Struijk, making his first Premier League start for Brighton since his summer move from Leeds, headed another corner wide.

Arsenal had 59.9% of the ball and two shots on target. Mikel Arteta made no change at half-time and got no response. Alex Howell's report says the Gunners were beaten in duels all over the pitch, which is the part of the game Arteta talks about more than any other, and that David Raya looked unsure with the ball at his feet under the pressure Brighton put on him. Bruno Guimaraes, given his first league start, never found a rhythm with Declan Rice and Odegaard.

This was Brighton's eleventh goal in a week: five at Coventry City, a 3-2 comeback at Old Trafford in the Carabao Cup, three here. Gross is 35, rejoined the club from Borussia Dortmund in January, and has four goals in his last five games. Kostoulas is 19 and has scored in three successive matches. Fabian Hurzeler's side are third, and the sixteen goals they have scored are more than any other club in the division has managed.

Everton had 21 shots and put two of them on target. One of the two was the goal, and it was not really a shot at all.

James Tarkowski struck from 35 yards on 11 minutes and Thierno Barry adjusted his body to divert it past Christian Walton. Barry failed to hit the target with a diving header, and had another header, from a corner, disallowed because Brennan Johnson was standing offside in front of the goalkeeper. Abdul Fatawu was sent off on 67 for two bookable offences, the second for diving after going to ground under minimal contact from James Garner.

Ipswich had four shots on target to Everton's two and lost. Jordan Pickford saved from Emersonn, Fatawu, Julio Enciso and Abdoul Ouattara; Emersonn and Leif Davis missed the target from good positions; Zian Flemming fired over in stoppage time and Issa Diop's late effort was charged down by Jarrad Branthwaite and Garner together. Gary O'Neil, whose father died earlier in the week, watched his side chase it to the end.

Everton have nine points and have conceded three goals, the joint fewest in the division. Iliman Ndiaye went to Manchester City for £65m on deadline day and Beto to Fiorentina for £14.6m, and David Moyes was left with one recognised senior centre-forward until January. That centre-forward has five goals in all competitions already, having managed eight in the whole of last season. Ipswich have six points from their first five matches back in the top flight.

Newcastle United were two goals up after seven minutes and spent most of the second half defending.

Harvey Barnes poked the ball through for Joe Willock to lash in from inside the box on three minutes. Four minutes later Barnes went past two defenders and slipped in Lewis Hall, whose angled drive found the bottom corner. Konstantinos Tzolakis saved Yoane Wissa's penalty just before half-time after Sorba Thomas had tripped Jacob Murphy. Mohamed-Ali Cho, a substitute, pulled one back on 67 for his first goal since his summer move from Nice.

Hull had 22 shots to Newcastle's twelve, seven corners to four and 36 touches in the Newcastle box. Lukas Hornicek made a flying save to keep out Mohamed Belloumi from distance and Tim Iroegbunam put a half-volley over the bar from close range. Matthias Jaissle had asked his players to take losing a duel personally after the 4-1 defeat at Leeds on Monday, and he got that for 45 minutes before letting out a relieved roar at the final whistle.

Jaissle talked afterwards about a trauma from the past, meaning the points Newcastle dropped from this position last season, and said he hoped the mindset could change. Eight points from five games is a foundation. The oddity is that Newcastle won and still finished the round below Hull City, who are also on eight and have a goal difference two better.

Coventry City had lost four, conceded ten and scored none. Jay Dasilva's finish on 55 minutes was their first goal in the English top flight since 5 May 2001.

Dasilva chased a Carl Rushworth punt forward, took a deft touch, skipped inside Daniel Munoz and beat Matz Sels, who had come out to narrow the angle. The previous one was scored by Mustapha Hadji in a 3-2 defeat by Aston Villa, 25 years, four months and 14 days earlier. Coventry had not played in the top flight since.

Nottingham Forest had 24 shots to Coventry's ten and 62.4% of the ball, and three shots on target, which is exactly as many as Coventry managed. Their expected goals figure was 1.15 against 0.67. Bobby Thomas hooked an Igor Jesus dink off the line, and Timothy Abraham's report says Ethan Pinnock had more blocks than a Lego set. Jesus thought he had equalised with four minutes of normal time left; after a video assistant referee review the referee decided a Forest player had caused Caleb Yirenkyi's fall in the build-up, and the goal did not stand.

This is the first time in Forest's history that they have failed to score in their first three home league fixtures of a season. Liam Delap, a £45m signing from Chelsea, had four shots here, none of them on target. Oliver Glasner identified home form as the thing to fix when he took the job. Frank Lampard ran to the away end at full time, and Coventry are 18th with three points while Forest are 13th with five.

Andoni Iraola left Bournemouth for Liverpool in the summer, came back in September, and won by the only goal of a game that did not deserve two.

Cody Gakpo ran at the Bournemouth defence and put a ball into the box that nobody dealt with, and Alexander Isak tucked it in from close range on 57 minutes. It was his fourth Premier League goal of the season. He ran to the travelling supporters to celebrate and Michael Oliver booked him for it.

Liverpool took 33 minutes to register a shot on target and another eleven to win a corner. Bournemouth had gone closest before that, through an Evanilson flick on 18 that Alisson pushed behind. Florian Wirtz skied one over from close range and was flagged offside when replays showed he was onside; Bradley Barcola forced Djordje Petrovic into a save with his legs; Dominik Szoboszlai's 25-yard free-kick dropped just wide. Bournemouth managed two shots on target all afternoon.

Liverpool have kept three top-flight clean sheets in a row in a single season for the first time since the start of 2024-25, which is the season they went on to win the title. Isak cost £125m and has already scored more top-flight goals than he managed in the whole of last season. Bournemouth had beaten Real Sociedad in the Basque Country on the Thursday, have three points from five league games, and host AC Milan on 22 October. Neil Johnston's report calls the break timely, and it is hard to argue.

Crystal Palace played in the Europa League on the Thursday, kept nine of that starting eleven, and were the better side at Elland Road for long stretches. They did not score.

The game came alive immediately after the restart. Yeremy Pino's clever free-kick was pushed away by James Trafford, Jefferson Lerma shot over from the corner that followed, and Daichi Kamada fired narrowly wide. Tyrick Mitchell then put the ball in the net, and it was disallowed because Anan Khalaili had been offside before crossing.

Leeds' best chance fell to Dominic Calvert-Lewin from eight yards and Walter Benitez saved it. Tarik Muharemovic celebrated a last-minute block on Ismaila Sarr the way most players celebrate a goal, which tells you what Daniel Farke has built. Palace had twelve shots to Leeds' thirteen and four on target to two.

Leeds finished 14th last season and are fifth in this one, unbeaten, having conceded three goals in five matches. Everton have conceded the same and nobody has conceded fewer. Calvert-Lewin has four goals in his last four games and an England recall to show for them, and one substitute appearance for his country since 2021, so the miss will have stayed with him. Palace are 15th with four points and were the better team.

Sunderland equalised twice at the Etihad, scored three goals, and lost. Brian Brobbey scored all three of them.

Enzo Fernandez whipped a free-kick in at the near post on nine minutes for his first goal since a £125m move from Chelsea. Enzo le Fee picked out Brobbey with a brilliant pass on twelve and the Netherlands striker slipped it past Gianluigi Donnarumma. Rayan Cherki finished into the bottom corner on 29 after Sunderland were caught playing out from the back, and Le Fee split the defence again on 33 for Thomas Meunier to square for Brobbey. Antoine Semenyo struck two minutes before half-time and again on 57, the second after Marc Guehi's pass intended for Erling Haaland found him instead. Brobbey bundled in Nilson Angulo's cross on 59 to complete the first senior hat-trick of his career. Haaland slid in at the back post on 81 to convert Josko Gvardiol's cross.

Manchester City had conceded two league goals all season before kick-off. The BBC page gives Sunderland's expected goals two different ways, 4.25 in Sam Drury's analysis and 4.15 in the match statistics, and both of them sit above City's 2.72. Donnarumma failed to claim a high ball, Ruben Dias' loose touch sent it bouncing back towards his own goal, and the captain had to hook it off the line. Haaland's goal was flagged offside and overturned, as his goal at Old Trafford had been the week before, and it means he has now scored against every Premier League club he has faced.

Five wins from five, thirteen goals, three points clear going into the break. Enzo Maresca has the results a first season after Pep Guardiola needs and not yet the performances, and Sunderland will not be the last side to find that a defence can be got at. Regis le Bris watched Dan Ballard and Malick Fofana miss clear chances at 5-3. His team faced the top two in eight days, played well in both, and took nothing from either.

Manchester United had 29 shots and thirteen corners at Craven Cottage and needed a deflection in the 89th minute to leave with a point.

Senne Lammens made a mess of Calvin Bassey's low shot on 63 and Lisandro Martinez's poor touch sent the ball into his own net with the goalkeeper scrambling. Matheus Cunha's effort from 20 yards a minute before full time took a wicked deflection off David Affengruber, wrongfooted Bernd Leno, and went in. Leno had made several big saves before that, at full stretch to deny Bryan Mbeumo and Cunha.

Fulham had twelve shots and put six on target, exactly as many as United managed from 29. Josh King is 19 and caught the eye, but Alex Iwobi ran the game from the left: five chances created, more than anyone else on the pitch, and not a single pass misplaced. Gary Neville said on Sky Sports it was the worst fifteen minutes he had ever seen United play.

Michael Carrick's side have five points from five games and are twelfth, with a derby defeat and a Carabao Cup exit from two goals up behind them and three weeks in which to think about both. Lisandro Martinez has now scored three Premier League own goals, level with Wes Brown, John O'Shea, Henning Berg and Jonny Evans as the most by a Manchester United player. Fulham are 19th on two points, still without a win, and have taken two of them from a trip to Anfield and a Manchester United visit.